Cornell is both a large top-tier research university and one of the prestigious Ivy League schools that are famed for both academic intensity and the social clout they offer graduates. Cornell is unique, however, as an Ivy. They are the only Ivy that is also a land grant university, giving New York State applicants a higher rate of admissions for some programs. They are the only Ivy to have an undergraduate school focused on labor relations, the only one with a hospitality program, and the foremost agriculture program in the country. For the fall of 2025, the in-state first-year acceptance rate was 13.25%. That same year, the out-of-state acceptance rate was 9%. One year later, for the Class of 2030 enrolling in the fall of 2026, we’re still not sure what the acceptance rate was as they have not released those numbers. We expect it to be within 1% +/- of the Class of 2029.

In this post, we’re going to be focusing on where Cornell is quite similar to its prestigious peers: their liberal arts undergraduate program, the College of Arts and Sciences. The Cornell College of Arts & Sciences is much like any other super-elite liberal arts program. The majors are basically the same (and there are dozens of them), the curriculum is generally similar, and you can find an outstanding education whether you want to go into the sciences or major in a foreign language. So, once you are there, you have a ton of options and the opportunity to explore. Getting in, though, is the hard part.

Getting into an elite university, including an Ivy like Cornell, is a statistical improbability. The odds are stacked so far against you that it’s sort of like trying to hit a pitch with your eyes closed. You can do it, but you need training, patience, and a hefty dose of luck.

What we do at The Koppelman Group is take the luck out of the equation. We work with our students to make getting into Cornell mathematically likely. Despite that sounding super technical, it’s more art than science. In this post, we’ll let you look into how we craft an application Cornell can’t wait to say “yes!” to.

A Cornell acceptance requires strong strategy. Get yours.

Applying to college is complex, but it’s also pretty simple. There are set things you need to do and boxes you need to check to be seriously considered by Cornell. We break those required (truly mandatory and less-well-known) things into 5 crucial steps. You can start these steps as early as freshman year of high school, and many of our students do just that. If you have less time before you’ll need to press submit, that is not an excuse to throw up your hands, though. Instead, you need to double down to make sure you use every moment that you do have to strengthen your application.

Step 1: Polish your Grades and Scores

When it comes to getting into Cornell, there are two non-negotiables: grades and scores. Cornell A&S does require a specific course distribution for applicants, and the rigor of your course load and how well you perform are both extremely important. You cannot get into Cornell with bad grades. You also cannot get into Cornell with ‘kinda good’ grades. Your grades need to be excellent.

Working with our students, we help them find that balance between taking the hardest courses they have access to and excelling in every course they take. Sometimes, this doesn’t mean stacking every AP your schedule can fit, but instead strategically creating a course load designed with your outcome — getting into Cornell — in mind.

To help us visualize what this might look like, let’s look at how Cornell expects you to measure up against your peers.

Class Rank	Percentage
Top 10th of HS graduating class	84%
Top Quarter of HS graduating class	97%
Top Half of HS graduating class	100%
Bottom Half of HS graduating class	0.40%
Total submitting class rank	12%

You’re smart, so you may have already noticed two glaring issues with the chart above. Neither are errors on our part. Cornell reports that 100% of accepted an enrolled first years for the fall of 2025 were in the top half of their high school graduating class. And yet, they say that 0.4% were in the bottom half of their high school graduating class. That simply doesn’t add up.

It’s also important to note that only 12% of admitted and enrolled first years submitted class rank as part of their applications. It is normal for this percentage to be under 50%, as many high schools do not calculate rank, but 12% is very low and means that this data is useful more as a conceptual framework (they expect high grades) than as a guideline for applicants.

Once you have your grades in order, it’s time to assess how your ACT or SAT measure up and whether you need to take either test again before pressing submit.

After going test optional for a few years during the COVID pandemic, Cornell has reinstated their standardized testing requirement. Now, all first-year applicants are required to submit either SAT or ACT scores.

In the 2025-2026 Common Data Set, the most recent report published by Cornell, they declined to share what percentage of admitted and enrolled students submitted the SAT and what percentage submitted ACT, but based on the numbers they did include about 75% of students who get in submit the SAT, while only 25% submit the ACT. The scores they got in with, regardless of which test they submitted, were excellent.

Test	25th Percentile	50th Percentile	75th Percentile
SAT Composite	1490	1,530	1550
ACT Composite	33	34	35

Don’t look at the 25th percentile and feel like you can take your foot off the gas pedal. Remember that the lower end of any range when it comes to admissions is typically populated by students who have external, non-academic factors pushing their application forward. This group includes recruited athletes, children of faculty and large donors, and ‘special case’ students who are given additional wiggle room that you can’t count on getting.

We counsel our students to aim to achieve a score above the 50th percentile mark. If you can get much higher, that’s awesome. But getting perfect scores will not, ever, make up for flawed grades. What you built over 4 years of high school matters much more, ultimately, than a single test.

Cornell cares about who you are — what drives you, where you want to go, and how they can help you get there — nearly as much as they care about your academic performance before arriving on campus. This is where passion comes into the picture.

Step 2: Pinpoint your Passion

If your academics are the foundation of your application, your passion is what allows it to take flight. An application with no passion falls completely flat. Being devoid of passion doesn’t excite the application readers, and it doesn’t make them want to find reasons to accept you. We want the opposite of that for you, so figuring out what your passion is matters immensely.

Now, ‘passion’ here does have an asterisk after it. There are loads of passions that are awesome, but that aren’t going to carry a Cornell application. That comes with one enormous caveat. A passion like go-kart racing can be pair with a prospective engineering major, or a passion like trail riding could be paired with an environmental science interest. Those are two of literally infinite possible examples, but what matters isn’t the passion, truly, it’s the academic tie-in.

That is all to say that the passion you center your application around must be linked in some way to what you will be putting down as your prospective major — and the academic subjects you have performed best in throughout high school. Perhaps you already have this passion and have been pursuing it for years, or maybe you think you know what to lean into but aren’t quite sure. We work with our students to solidify their passion to make their Cornell application as exciting as their academics are impressive.

A big broad passion isn’t enough, though. In addition to solidifying, we want you to distill your passion down to its essence.

Step 3: Niche Down

So, you like literature. Maybe books and classic literature are your passion. We need you to get more specific, though, for this book nerd vibe to really capture the application readers’ attention. This might mean focusing on a particular time period, language, or author. It could include writing your own work inspired by your passion, and getting it published by a literary magazine. Perhaps you do an independent research project and pursue publication by a humanities journal open to high schoolers. What you do specifically matters less, though, than pursuing something specific under the umbrella of your passion that makes what drives you feel palpable.

We love when we get to help students develop a niche, but that often requires starting sophomore or junior year. If you are closer to pressing submit, there is still time to identify and develop a niche, but it often looks more like assembling a puzzle from pieces you’ve been working on for years but didn’t think to put together. What are those pieces, you ask? The pieces are what you do outside of the classroom.

Step 4: Edit your Extracurriculars

If you are interested in going to Cornell, it is unlikely that you sit on your bum all day scrolling. You are busy, engaged, and a leader in your friend group and community. You don’t have the problem of having nothing to write about. Instead, you actually have too much.

If you haven’t looked closely at the Common Application activities section, there are two things that tend to shock students and parents alike. First, there is only space for 10 things. Second, you have 150 characters — yes, characters — to use to describe each. So, something that you have spent years on may only fit into a space less than a sentence on your application. This is why you have to make every extracurricular, summer job, sport, and volunteer position count.

Getting into Cornell isn’t a ‘who did more?’ competition. It often shocks our students when we tell them that certain activities won’t even make the cut for their activities section. Things they spent time and effort on with the idea that it would look good on their apps end up in the editing trash heap. It doesn’t mean that activity wasn’t worth it for their personal experience and growth, but if we cut it that is because the activity doesn’t serve the passion-niche narrative that we need the application to emphasize.

For Cornell, there are three other things that we need your activities to spotlight.

Scholarship
Leadership
Curiosity

Cornell wants students who push themselves academically even when they aren’t being graded, who are leaders among their peers, and who show deep curiosity for the world, especially as related to their passion and prospective major.

If you will be applying soon, you don’t have time to rebuild your entire activities list, but there is still time to add a thing or two that would underline what makes you awesome. That could include:

Research
Internships
Outside classes
Part-time job

There are more options than those four, of course, but they are a great place to start if you need to get your extracurriculars up to speed before you apply.

Step 5: Apply!

The last step, of course, is to actually write and submit your application. First, though, you need to decide if you will be applying in the Regular Decision pool or choosing Early Decision.

Early Decision is a big commitment, but there is also no better way into Cornell. For the Class of 2029, the ED acceptance rate was a full 10% higher than the overall average.

Overall (Class of 2029)	Number
Applicants	72,523
Admits	6,077
Acceptance Rate	8%

ED (Class of 2029)	Number
Applicants	10,057
Admits	1,889
Acceptance Rate	19%

The only real argument for not applying ED if Cornell is your first choice is if you need a full semester of senior year grades to improve your application. If you are counting on those grades, though, it’s likely that you aren’t a strong candidate for Cornell regardless. If you aren’t sure, get in touch. We can help assess your likelihood of admission.

As you actually start writing your application, remember that Cornell isn’t simply an academic institution. They want to get to know you, the you that goes deeper than a textbook, in your essays, recommendations, and supplements.

Nonacademic Factors	Very Important	Considered	Not Considered
Interview		X
Extracurricular activities	X
Talent/ability	X
Character/personal qualities	X
First generation		X
Alumni/ae relation		X
Geographical residence		X
State residency		X
Religious affiliation/commitment			X
Volunteer work		X
Work experience		X
Level of applicant’s interest			X

In addition to your Common App personal statement and your activities section, the best place to highlight your personal qualities and talents is in the Cornell supplement. Each undergraduate school has their own supplement, and for the College of Arts & Sciences the question is:

At the College of Arts and Sciences, curiosity will be your guide. Discuss how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey, and what areas of study or majors excite you and why. Your response should convey how your interests align with the College, and how you would take advantage of the opportunities and curriculum in Arts and Sciences. (650 word limit)

We are going to break down this question in a separate post soon, but definitely start brainstorming how you might want to highlight your journey to your passion — and how you would pursue it at Cornell.

Conclusion

Getting into a top-tier school doesn’t happen on accident. It takes hard work, planning, and a sense of purpose. We can’t make you work hard, but we can help develop an acceptance-earning strategy. We do it every year, and our strong track record of helping students gain admission to Cornell speaks for itself.

If you want to craft the perfect application for Cornell, reach out to us today.